Son of Reason: Gravis and Tulla
= Recently, a group of campers found a book in a secret chamber near Zeus's Fist. There are 12 chapters in the book, each one written in a different language. This is a translation of one of the chapters. = Once many years before Percy Jackson was born, there were two sons of Ares, called Marius and Peter. They lived in Camp Half Blood and had gone on many quests together and were like brothers. While they were eating dinner one night they had a quarrel between the two of them; Marius believed that strength and endurance were more important in combat, while Peter argued that speed and agility were more important. They debated for most of the night but neither could sway the other, so they went to bed, angry of the outcome. In the middle of the night, both of them had a dream where Ares told them both to tell the Hephaestus cabin to construct two automatons, one would be incredibly strong and heavily armed and armored; while the other would be incredibly fast and lightly armed and armored. After the automatons were done, they would fight to the death to see who was right. When they woke up in the morning, they rushed to the Hephaestus cabin to request their automatons. The children of the volcano god agreed to build the automatons, as they were curious to the outcome. They told Marius and Peter to come back in five days and the automatons would be ready. Marius decided to name his heavier automaton Gravis, and Peter named the agile counterpart Tulla. Now there were five children of Hephaestus at the time, but one of them was sick that day. He grew jealous about not being able to influence the designs of the automatons, as he normally did as he was the cabin counselor. So he created two secret fly automatons, that would sneak up on Gravis and Tulla and tear them apart from the inside out. So the day came that Gravis and Tulla were to dual in the arena. Gravis was a knight in bronze armor, thick and strong. He wielded a massive great sword. Tulla was skinny, light, and used a bow and knives. The horn sounded. Gravis tried to charge Tulla, but he was too slow to cover ground quickly. Tulla began firing volley after volley of arrows, but none were strong enough to pierce Gravis's thick plates. Whenever Gravis got close enough to use his sword, Tulla just ran off to a far spot and shot arrows again. This cycle went on for an hour, until the jealous son deployed his fly bots. Gravis and Tulla never saw it coming. The first fly landed on Tulla while he was distracted with Gravis. The fly easily disabled him by tearing at an exposed wire. The second fly landed right on Gravis's nose. Gravis, not being the smartest automaton, used his sword to try to swat the fly away. It did not go well. The campers, especially Marius and Peter, were stunned. It was at this moment that the jealous son walked to the center of the arena and shouted, "Ingenuity beats strength and agility any day!" Category:Son of Reason Category:Near is god Category:Short Story